I’ve lived in Champaign-Urbana since my family moved here when I was three, and I’ve worked at the Brackett Farm’s stand at the Farmer’s Market for almost three years. Having inherited the position from my college-bound sister the summer before my sophomore year of high school, it took some getting used to when I first started the job. Waking up at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday during the summer is something most teenagers wouldn’t want to do once, let alone every Satuday for their entire summer and most of their fall. The weather is often a problem, as well, with only a tent or two to protect you from sweltering heat or pouring, freezing rain. Now, as I prepare to enter my senior year of high school, I can’t imagine my summer without it. When I think of my job, it’s not the bad weather and lack of sleep that occupies my mind but rather, the things I love ― the people and the community.
Every week at the Market, a six hour shift easily turns into a morning of people watching around hectic periods of produce sales. Fashionable teens wearing the latest trends, the typical hippies with tattoos and Birkenstocks, young families, old couples, and people of every shape, size, and description can be seen in the aisles of the market. Often, I don’t even have to leave the stand to feel like I’ve seen them all.
I see people I know every week. Classmates, teachers, librarians, family friends, my mom’s guitar teacher, and sometimes local rockstar Ryan Groff (who I never fail to fangirl over from behind the squash) all walk by the stand. Having them stop and say hello, or even just wave at me in passing, is usually better than coffee to keep me perky. I’ve even come to recognize customers by sight, if not by name. There’s the guy who looks like actor Michael Fassbender in a fedora who always buys more apples and pears than I think can fit on the scale; the friendly couple that always totes one or more of my boss Cyndy’s homemade bags, and never fails to be impressed with the accuracy of my 7:30 a.m. mental math (or to graciously forgive me when I’m off); the man who always comes with his shy toddler son, pulled behind him in a red wagon, or for more brief trips, hoisted onto his hip. All these people, and many of the ones not described who stop by, highlight my morning. Their business and their smiles all make the job worthwhile.
Another thing I absolutely love about the farmer’s market is the sense of community I’ve felt from the people who work the market, a community I count myself lucky to be a part of. For the entire three years I’ve been working the market, the stands in the first aisle, usually the only part of the market I can see, have been unchanging. There’s Jeff across the way, who can always be counted on to whistle. We have a friendly competition with Blue Moon Farms for our salad mix. Mid-morning breakfast is always bought from Fryer Tucks’ truck in the back corner of the market. One of the vendors there always strikes up a friendly conversation with me when he sees me, and teases me when I haven’t been the one who buys the breakfast sandwiches in a while. I recently bought a very delicious cantaloupe from Moore Family Farms, a stand that customers frequently think is one and the same with Brackett Farms, as they’re right next door. Lisa, an organic farmer whose stand backs up into the Brackett stand, frequently comes around to ask Bob a question. My family buys t-shirts from the local Central Illinois artist to give as gifts and to poke fun at our town. My experience (though it’s just that of a lowly shopgirl) has been that everyone ― farmer, vendor, and artist ― is there for one thing: to have a successful business day, but to be pleasant and friendly while doing so, to each other as well as to the customers.
I was ecstatic when I discovered last week that the Market at the Square’s sense of community extends outside of the community shared by the people who come there to sell, all the way to the people who come there to buy. The Market’s new grant-funded LINK Double Value Program, which gives a person two of the one dollar tokens for every LINK dollar (up to $20) that they plan to spend at the Market, promises to be a huge draw for people who never previously could have afforded to shop at the Farmer’s Market. I have never needed to use LINK myself, but I realize it is vitally important in the lives of everyone who does use the system. It only bodes well that the Market is so forward-thinking and community driven, as many of those who need to use LINK cannot typically afford the higher prices of locally and organically grown produce. It’s been shown that eating healthier food leads to healthier communities, and that is high on the list of priorities for the Urbana Market at the Square.
The huge aisle of community tents, which has grown so much that it has now taken over the entire driveway into the main lot where the Market is held, also speaks volumes of the Market’s commitment to enriching the Urbana-Champaign community. With everything from the LGBT youth’s UP Center tent, tents for animal rescues, religious center tents, and health services (including the blood donation bus parked in the actual parking lot), all of the bases are covered for community resources.
Of course, you can’t have a community without people, and what I love most about Urbana’s Market at the Square is how flawlessly it seems to draw the two together. Walking through the aisles of the market, you feel like you could be almost anywhere. The people are varied in appearance, personality, tastes, and opinions. They stop at different stands, talk to different people, walk at different paces. The booths are their own islands of activity, the people stopping to swirl around them, sometimes buying and sometimes moving on with just an exchange of smiles. The thought might be inescapable for some, and the thought might strike others as a novelty while they examine their purchases ― all these things were made and grown locally, and so was this Farmer’s Market experience.